Adding Toggle 3D button to actor viewer.

[Boston]

I am attempting to add a button to the Actor Viewer that will toggle between 2d and 3d projection:

camera.SetPerspectiveProjection(2.f, 512.f, DEGTORAD(20.f));

found in source/tools/atlas/GameInterface/View.cpp

sets the Field Of View, IE how strongly things are effected by perspective.

 

float m_Distance;

found on line 38 of source/tools/atlas/AtlasUI/ScenarioEditor/Tools/ActorViewerTool.cpp

sets the distance from the object being viewed to the camera, IE how large the object appears on screen.

 

I want to modify both of these at the same time, but I can't for the life of me find a way to send data from source/tools/atlas/GameInterface/View.cpp to source/tools/atlas/AtlasUI/ScenarioEditor/Tools/ActorViewerTool.cpp

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

Boston.

 

[Boston]

I might have to include more headers in view.cpp

Then would I have to modify the makefile?

I don't know what the system is with makefiles in 0 A.D. but I will have to learn it eventually. 

Boston

[Boston]

m_ScenarioEditor.GetToolManager().GetCurrentToolName();

(added to Object.cpp)

returns "ActorViewerTool", but

m_ScenarioEditor.GetToolManager().GetCurrentTool();

returns type ObservablePtr<ITool>&

and I cant get it to cast as ActorViewerTool& to modify it's variables.

I tried passing data via a global variable, but the program wouldn't link.

Boston.

 

 

[Stan`]

Since it's a pointer (Ptr suffix) maybe you just need to dereference it ?

[Boston]

The correct syntax is

            ObservablePtr<ITool>& Tool = p->m_ScenarioEditor.GetToolManager().GetCurrentTool();
            ActorViewerTool *Tool1 = static_cast<ActorViewerTool*>(*Tool);
            Tool1->Toggle_3d(m_ViewerToggle3d);

I get the same problem with the linker as I did trying to share a global variable.

 

 

[Boston]

I don't know why passing the value by a global variable didn't work last time, but this time it did!

 

Boston.

[Boston]

I've been fooling around with an orthogonal camera.

It would be nice if it was more consistent with the perspective camera.

This is as good a result as I can get, at least for today:

Boston

[Boston]

I cant get the orthographic camera to work.

Does anyone have code that works with the orthographic camera?

Delenda Est, the mod for 0 A.D, uses a perspective camera with a narrow field of view.

With a narrow field of view you have to place the camera further away to achieve the same level of "zoom"

If the distance from the camera is too far, details like shadows are no longer drawn.

Will look into fixing this, tomorrow.

Boston

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

8 hours ago, Boston said:

If the distance from the camera is too far, details like shadows are no longer drawn.

 

You just have to enable the whole map option for the shadows.

The main problem with the narrow FOV/far zoom approach is that sound effects are now no longer the correct volume. The emitters are "far away", so that there needs to be a custom sound schema for such an approach. 

[Boston]

They talk a bit about isometric projection in this topic:

For future reference, this works:

camera.SetOrthoProjection(-2.f, -512.f, 24.0f);

And this doesn't work:

camera.SetOrthoProjection(2.f, 512.f, 24.0f);

[Boston]

I changed line 511 of source/graphics/CameraController.cpp

 

from: m_Camera.SetPerspectiveProjection(m_ViewNear, m_ViewFar, m_ViewFOV);

to: m_Camera.SetOrthoProjection(-m_ViewNear, -m_ViewFar, 256.f);

this is the result:

Sound works perfectly but I couldn't capture it with the screen capture software.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Boston
Typo

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Oh that's cool!

@vladislavbelov You think this is the direction to go to add an orthographic option? 

[vladislavbelov]

4 hours ago, Boston said:

m_Camera.SetOrthoProjection(-m_ViewNear, -m_ViewFar, 256.f);

m_Camera.SetOrthoProjection(m_ViewFar, m_ViewNear, 256.f); might also work.

3 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

@vladislavbelov You think this is the direction to go to add an orthographic option? 

Yes, it's a start. Then we need:

• Add a separate camera controller to be able to configure the orthogonal mode properly
• Add an option in GUI
• Adjust zooming code with visible bounds to fit/to be similar to the perspective mode
• Choose camera position to have proper sounds on all zooms
• Check reflections and refractions
• Check shadows (w/ and w/o cover the whole map mode)
• Test regular and big screenshots and adjust their code if it doesn't work
• Think what do we need to do in Atlas (autoswitch to the perspective mode or something else)
• Test for z-fighting for all backends (OpenGL, OpenGL ARB, Vulcan)

[Boston]

15 minutes ago, vladislavbelov said:

m_Camera.SetOrthoProjection(m_ViewFar, m_ViewNear, 256.f); might also work.

No, I tried that when I was fooling around with the code. I don't know why the values have to be negated.

Boston.

[vladislavbelov]

30 minutes ago, Boston said:

I don't know why the values have to be negated.

Because we use it for GUI where the Z axis is inverted (and never thought to use it somewhere else before refactorings).

[Boston]

I can share data between:

source/tools/atlas/AtlasUI/ScenarioEditor/Tools/ActorViewerTool.cpp

and:

source/tools/atlas/GameInterface/View.cpp

fairly easily by declaring global variables in ActorViewerTool.cpp (and I know this is an ugly hack)

But

1. I cannot figure out how to trigger a call to ActorViewerTool::PostLookAt() from View.cpp, to update the display after modifying parameters.
2. I cannot figure out how to trigger a call to camera.SetOrthoProjection(-2.f, -512.f, XXX); from ActorViewerTool.cpp (in order to change the scale of the image by clicking and dragging on it)

 

 

[Boston]

2: is solved by making a call such as:

POST_MESSAGE(SetViewParamI, (AtlasMessage::eRenderView::ACTOR, L"Set 2d scale", 512));

from within ActorViewerTool.cpp

P.S.

1: might have to create the file ActorViewerTool.h

Edited January 2 by Boston
P.S.

[Boston]

I tried to declare a C like function in  ActorViewerTool.cpp and call it from within View.cpp

unfortunately, build/workspaces/gcc/atlas.make "includes" View.cpp and not ActorViewerTool.cpp

I guess this is why I can't try to run code in ActorViewerTool.cpp from View.cpp without getting a linking error

[Boston]

I was able to implement

POST_MESSAGE(SetViewParamF, (AtlasMessage::eRenderView::ACTOR, L"Set 2d scale", obj->m_Distance / 5));

instead of

POST_MESSAGE(SetViewParamI, (AtlasMessage::eRenderView::ACTOR, L"Set 2d scale", obj->m_Distance / 5));

for smoother scrolling.

I need to implement

POST_MESSAGE(SetViewParamB, (ActorViewerTool, L"Set Toggle 3d", m_Toggle3d));

Then everything else should fall into place

Boston

[Boston]

I was able to implement a C like function in

source/tools/atlas/AtlasUI/ScenarioEditor/Tools/ActorViewerTool.cpp

and call it from

source/tools/atlas/AtlasUI/ScenarioEditor/Sections/Object/Object.cpp

I'm pretty happy with the functionality but not so sure about coding this up "correctly"

[Boston]

I'd like to split ActorViewerTool.cpp into header and source and include ActorViewerTool.h in Object.cpp

That would create a new dependency, so would I have to much around with Premake?

I'm not sure what to do with lines 94 to 169 of ActorViewerTool.cpp, any advice?

I'll soon be ready to submit a patch to Phabricator. What is the best place to download the current source for modifying and creating a patch?

Boston.

[hyperion]

33 minutes ago, Boston said:

That would create a new dependency, so would I have to much around with Premake?

Globbing is used for almost all of 0ad, so rerunning premake or update-workspace.sh should be all you need to do.

[Boston]

I implemented this code in Object.cpp:

            if (m_ViewerToggle3d == true) {
                p->m_ScenarioEditor.GetToolManager().GetCurrentTool()->OnCommand(_T("Set 3d"), NULL);
            } else {
                p->m_ScenarioEditor.GetToolManager().GetCurrentTool()->OnCommand(_T("Set 2d"), NULL);
            }

I believe this is the "correct" solution.

I've read that the best place to download the latest source is on SVN but I've also read that you have transitioned to hosting the latest source on GitHub, so which is it?

Boston

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Each is a mirror of the other as far as I know. @Stan`?

[vladislavbelov]

3 hours ago, Boston said:

I've read that the best place to download the latest source is on SVN

You can get the latest SVN here: https://svn.wildfiregames.com/public/ps/trunk/

3 hours ago, Boston said:

I've also read that you have transitioned to hosting the latest source on GitHub, so which is it?

We haven't done transitioning yet, only mirror and test repositories. GitHub mirror is https://github.com/0ad/0ad.

2 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Each is a mirror of the other as far as I know. @Stan`?

Yeah, currently all repositories except the SVN one are mirrors (or test mirrors).